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Monday, 3 March 2014

Award Season: Top 5 Precode Oscar Moments

The annual
Academy Awards has always been an occasion for glitz and glamour and to honour
members of the film industry who have excelled over the year. Since the event began
broadcasting on television, the eager public has been the given the
unprecedented opportunity to have live and comprehensive coverage of the ceremony
and (more importantly) the red carpet pre-show. This technology has made the
yearly scandals, snubs, bad jokes and outfit shocks instant news all in vivid
colour. However, the period before television and the radio broadcast – and my
personal interest – the early 1930’s also included a number of cringe worthy,
unbelievable and ground-breaking moments. These incidents were only recorded thanks
to the now seemingly out-dated medium, the newspaper, and organisations, such
as, Oscars.org. Amid this awards
season I have dug out my top 5 Precode Oscar Moments:

5.It Happened One Awards Night

The 7th Academy Awards
held February 27th, 1935, proved a spectacular year for comedies and
the famous, influential director, Frank Capra. His little romantic comedy, It Happened One Night, became the first
film in the awards history to take a clean sweep of all the major Oscars. These
include: Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable who won the top acting gongs, Best
Director for Capra, Best Screenplay for writer Robert Riskin and also, the most
celebrated category, of Best Picture. It would take more than 40 years for the
feat to be repeated by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest in 1976. It was also an astounding win because in conjunction with the
film being the first romantic comedy to receive Best Picture, the film was
never destined to be a resounding success. There were many issues with the
movie pre-production, mainly with casting with none of the major stars of the
period willing or able to take either the male or female leads. After a
struggle Capra finally settled on Gable and Colbert both who had a long line of
demands before agreeing to participate. However, the films dialogue, themes and
the performances of actors struck a chord with both audiences and critics
making the film a major triumph.

Claudette Colbert with her Oscar

4. The
Importance of Being Frank

Conversely, the 1933 ceremony, a year before, was embarrassing
experience for the innovative director, Frank Capra. The filmmaker providing an
interesting and hilarious talking point for the guests and media alike days
after all the Oscars were awarded. Capra was nominated for Best Director for
his work on the film, Lady For a Day, alongside
George Cukor for, Little Women, and
Frank Lloyd for the historical epic, Cavalcade.
Actor and master of ceremonies, Will Rogers, announced the nominees and
called, ambiguously, “Come up and get it, Frank!” Assuming he had been awarded
the prize and in the confusion, Capra rushed to the stage to collect the
statue. After a few moments of bewilderment and clarification, Rogers confirmed
it was actually Lloyd who had won instead of Capra. It was an Oscar blunder
that thanks to the lack of technology was not instant news and has become a
part of the Academy Awards legend. Thankfully, Capra’s embarrassment was
overcome when he was rewarded the following year with the Best Director award.

Frank Lloyd and Will Rogers

3. Let’s Call it a Tie

Wallace Beery, Lionel Barrymore, Conrad Nagel and Fredric March

The 5th Academy Awards
celebrating the films created between August 1, 1931 and July 31, 1932 created an odd dilemma for the award’s officials. In the
Best Actor category, front-runners, Fredric March nominated for Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde and Wallace Beery for The
Champ ended the voting with a one-point difference. The Academy rules at the time stated that the score was not a significant
enough win and called the contest a tie. On the night both actors were presented
separate trophies and, luckily, both appeared contented with the outcome.
Although he was officially in the lead, March was happy to share his prize,
with his biographer, Charles Tranberg, commenting:

“March made
a very witty acceptance speech.He and
Beery had both recently adopted a child and March said something to the effect
that it was ‘a little odd that we were both given awards for the best male
performance of the year.’Very funny and
witty--March really did have a good sense of humour.It brought down the house.March had no adverse reaction to sharing the
award with Beery--after all they both got their own statuette and didn’t have
to share custody of one trophy.”

2. The Kids

Young stars became a feature of the Academy Awards ceremonies between
1930 and 1934 as this era in films created many opportunities for the tiny
talents to exhibit their abilities. Two outstanding examples are Shirley Temple
and Jackie Cooper who both caught the public and the academy’s eyes in the
early thirties. Temple created history winning the first ever Juvenile Award
aged six at the 7th Academy Awards which was created to acknowledge
her achievements over her short career. She is still the youngest ever Oscar
recipient. Similarly, Jackie Cooper entered the history books in 1931 after
being nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Skippy aged only nine. His
achievement was only surpassed in 1979 by Justin Henry nominated for his work
in Kramer vs. Kramer. However, young
Cooper didn’t have the stamina to last the entire ceremony. According to
reports, Cooper fell asleep half way through the proceedings unfortunately on
the shoulder of Marie Dressler who was nominated for Best Actress. When she
won, Dressler had to slowly manoeuvre the sleeping Cooper onto his mother’s lap
before accepting the award.

Shirley Temple with her Academy Award

1. The Great Bette Snub

Bette Davis with her Oscar for Dangerous in 1935

One of the most shocking ever Oscar snubs occurred in 1934. Bette Davis
who had previously been given flimsy and melodramatic roles had forced the
tyrannical Jack Warner to loan her out to RKO to star in the confronting
Somerset Maugham story, Of Human Bondage.
The role was challenging for Davis who not only had to behave outrageously
flirty and cruel but appear physically hideous and die in the end of a
degrading undisclosed illness. She was successful and a standout for the year
with Life magazine commenting she gave, “the best
performance ever recorded on the screen by an American actress.” However,
astonishingly, Davis was not initially nominated for the Best Actress award.
After pressure from the media, members of the public and other actors, The
Academy was forced to reconsider its decision. The critics were insisting a
“write-in ballot” be created. Later Academy’s president, Howard Estabrook
stated, “The awards committee has
decided upon a change in the rules to permit unrestricted selection of any
voter, who may write on the ballot his personal choice for the winner.” This
ruling allowed Davis to be officially named a nominee two weeks after the first
announcement of the nominees were made. Unfortunately but not surprisingly,
Davis did not win losing out to Claudette Colbert. Interestingly she wrote in
her autobiography that everybody on the night assumed she would be victorious.

“The air was
thick with rumours. It seemed inevitable that I would receive the coveted award.
The press, the public and the members of the Academy who did the voting were
sure I would win! Surer than I!”

She was rewarded a year later receiving the Oscar for
her role as a fallen actress in Dangerous
in a well-acted performance but Davis always considered this a kind of
reparation for the snub the year before.

Welcome

So what is Precode?

Forgotten Star: Sari Maritza

I'm classic film crazy and have recently discovered the wonderful world of Precode Cinema. I'm sometimes a writer and sometimes other things. The Gods and Goddesses of this era radiate passion and life - they are completely modern and wonderful.